One of the blokes I work with jokingly reckons you are born with an allocated number of heart beats for your lifetime. By cycling and upping HR you are shotening yor life he reckons. When I come in off the the bike at the start of the shift his word are ; "wasting heart beats again?".

I'll have todo this count again. But some twenty years ago, at peak condition, I had my pulse taken, mostly under ideal conditions (attendant taking pulse while in deep sleep, etc) and had readings from the low thirties to mid thirties.

I did have reason to believe that I may be genetically disposed to a low rate - my dad had very low rates, even inlater life when his heart was under stress, a cardiologist made mention that he seemed to have lower reading than normal. I was also supremely fit. But I think Dad had a bit to do with it too.

Others may be interested however to retake their rates under ideal conditions - get a partner to take it while you are asleep (and not in REM state for example). You may be surprised how much lower it is. And bearing in mind the demographic here, I'd expect some exceptionally low readings, many in the thirties.

Has anyone here been subjected to a sleep laboratory? You'd have best quality data.

Parrott wrote:One of the blokes I work with jokingly reckons you are born with an allocated number of heart beats for your lifetime. By cycling and upping HR you are shotening yor life he reckons. When I come in off the the bike at the start of the shift his word are ; "wasting heart beats again?".

55bpm, 42 years old. It's a pity being healthy almost has no effect on blood pressure. I was doing bootcamp and riding 50kms a day, but I couldn't lose weight or lower my BP. And yet I'm "very healthy" - not fun.

I was very pleased to see on Saturday that ,while sitting in the freo emergeny rooms with tendons and bone exposed and the joint dislocated and without any pain meds, my pulse was still sitting at 60. This riding must be working it's magic.

Would there be ANY long term rider who is not better off for riding. I don't think so.

Chaderotti wrote:Woke up about 5 minutes ago. Sitting at my desk and it's 64. I noticed that when I breathed in my heart would beat faster, but breathing out it would slow down to 1 beat a second... Interesting.

Went to the gym last night and they gave me a fitness appraisal, apparently my blood pressure was 186/70 something. Incredibly high which is kind of scary.

Chad - if they were using a cuff/bladder too small, then that will drastically affect your bp to the point of irrelevance. Think back and if it was really tight when inflated then they should have used a better fit one. The right cuff is critical to an accurate measure.

It's a worry that, out of convenience, the wrong cuff/bladder is commonly used. It makes me wanna beat the living bejesus out of medicos that used to publicly counsel against self-monitoring bp on the basis that Joe Average might do it wrong when COMMONLY medicos are too lazy to reach in the cupboard for the right cuff. ("If the cuff fits, it's OK" and "Size makes only a couple of points difference" is blatant palming-off BS.)

Doctors used to tell us that we need to have lots of other readings so there is a base line - well, when was the last time your GP took your pulse and bp AND recorded it for reference? The blood bank is probably the only time. (Unless at the time bp is relevant to the issue that you are in there for, which then makes it irrelevant as a baseline.)

Anyway, get them to do it again sometime and, if it is really high, question whether they have used the right cuff. Make them repeat with a larger cuff. If the pressure goes down significantly then the reading they should record is the larger-cuff one. Make a note of the cuff size for future reference and insist that all practitioners use that size. Give them a serve if they don't have that size. (Hmmm, is there a standardised size rating? This may be problematic.)

btw, the practitioner should have ensured that your forearm was supported (not held up by you) roughly horizontally at about heart height.

It is medically irresponsible (and all too common) to take a bp reading with the wrong equipment and under the wrong circumstances. Such reading have zero relevance.

I wish to brag here: When I was in hospital recently for a hernia surgery my RHR was consistently 40. I set off the monitor alarms every time. Fortunately, the first nurse who took my pulse asked me if I did a lot of regular exercise. I told her I was a commuting cyclist, she nodded and wrote it on my chart to explain the low HR. No more questions from the nurses, but I did enjoy setting the alarms off.

Chaderotti wrote:I got my bp checked the next day at my GP and it was 137/60~ so my medication is helping in dropping that.And yes Collin, thinking back now the cuff became incredibly tight.

Am I understand that you are now on indication largely as a result of the high reading you had? If so, then I restate, "if they were using a cuff/bladder too small, then that will drastically affect your bp to the point of irrelevance". And to then treat you for hypertension on that data is adding insult to injury.

Apologies to your medico if he has in fact done it right. It's only that it is all too common on people with largeish arms - fat or muscular - to have slackly done BP readings and so I raise the possibility.

Before I started commuting 300-400km/week about 3 years ago, I'd always thought that the times I had been reasonably fit my RHR was about 48 - when I ran cross country at school, for a couple of years when I dived in my 20s, and for a year that I cycled to work about 120km/week in my 30s. Before I started commuting it was on about 60. After 18 months of commuting I went for a checkup that my bulk billing doctor said was free on some program the govt had for guys in their late 40s. It was 42 in his office with the cheap auto blood pressure machine so he sent me out the back (walking around during the day not in bed) for an ECG and it was 40 with what he said was a perfect shape to the graph. He probably wanted the extra $$! It just confirmed what I saw as I went to bed at night at that time. I just watch the digital clock and restart counting with each minute, hearing the beat in my ear folded over against the pillow - no movement/exertion needed to feel a pulse with my fingers. Quite soporific.

What i have noticed is that:1. My pulse settles to an even rate within about 3 or 4 minutes.2. It stays 2 or 3 beats per min higher on days when i have ridden (even when i got home at 630pm and go to bed 4 or 5 hours later), and is slower one or two days later. I've not heard other people comment on observing this too, but I saw it every weekend as I rode only on the commute. Too many kids to run around after on the weekends to go cycling much.3. Not very often slower in the morning by more than one more bpm.

I changed job and haven't ridden quite so much for the last few months, and the RHR is back up to 47-48. (as you can see below). Still much more able to ride distances comfortably than 3 years back.

objectman wrote:It's a pity being healthy almost has no effect on blood pressure.

I just conceded defeat after my blood pressure remained stupidly high independent of weight / exercise / diet over the last 10 years (i'm 44 now). So, on the drugs, and the first thing the doc did was say I couldn't ride until it was normal. Aaaaagh. Didn't tell her I had done hill repeats that morning, have done the 210 atb four times and am training for the 250. Or was training for the 250... It's a goal I guess, but a bit scary that I'm a stroke risk now, but blissfully unaware in the last 10,000k.

[quote="Chaderotti"]Woke up about 5 minutes ago. Sitting at my desk and it's 64. I noticed that when I breathed in my heart would beat faster, but breathing out it would slow down to 1 beat a second... Interesting.

I am 57 with a resting heart rate of 50. Blood pressure, however, has been gradually getting higher so succumbed to medication last Friday. So far, no side effects, and no change to riding. Should I expect any side effects?

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